Burleighs has signed a deal to create the world’s first Marilyn Monroe pink gin.

The Leicestershire distiller hopes the agreement will propel its brand to a global audience and quadruple sales in the next two years.

The distillery team, based on a farm in Nanpantan, has spent months negotiating with the estate of the Some Like it Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star.

It means that the Charnwood-based business can use the actress's iconic branding.

Marilyn Monroe Gin should be on sale in the UK this June, selling for around £35 a bottle, with plans to hit the huge American and Asian markets next year.

Burleighs managing director Matt Payne said: “We don’t want to be just another gin brand and this will be a totally new product.

The Burleighs gin range

“This deal shows we are playing with the big boys in a global market.

“Pink gin has been one of the biggest new products on the market and we actually think sales figures we are forecasting could be on the conservative side.

“Marilyn Monroe has millions of followers on Facebook and Instagram and we think the new gin will account for half of all our sales in time.

"It’s taking us to a completely different level.

“We will be starting off selling it in the UK, and UK duty shops, and selling in-flight miniatures – it’s an obvious product to get on board transatlantic flights.

“We’re also talking to distributors in the US and Asia – Marilyn Monroe is massive in South Korea, for instance, so we will be looking at those markets next year.”

Mr Payne, a branding expert, joined the distillery last year having been part of the retail and licensing team at Leicester City during the years that took in promotion, the Great Escape, winning the Premier League and making it through to the Champions League quarter-finals.

Burleighs is making a Marilyn Monroe Pink Gin

He hopes the pink gin will take annual sales from around 75,000 bottles of Burleighs to 250,000 and upwards by 2020.

The business is adding a second copper still to the Nanpantan operation this summer – which will be named after Monroe – and moving to a bigger unit on the same farm site which will give it almost three times as much space.

When US sales get underway they also plan to fire up a new still in the States.

Growing gin sales are just the tonic for Burleighs

Burleighs already has four core London Dry gins – including a pink gin which was launched in 2016 when there were just five varieties on the market. Today there are more than 100 pink gins on sale.

Burleighs, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, also distills Leicester City, Leicester Tigers and Richard III gins and has just launched a collaboration with the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.

That new gin supports work being done by Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir to fund vital research into the causes and potential cures of Motor Neurone Disease, a condition which he has.

Burleighs MD Matt Payne said he would love to raise £1 million for the charity.

He said: “Doddie is a very popular character within the rugby world and a lot of ex-internationals are working with him to find a cure for Motor Neurone Disease.

“We will be giving 100 per cent of the profits from the Doddie collaboration to them. It’s a nice thing to be able to do.”

The pink bottles – designed in-house – feature on the front Monroe in a black swimsuit from the film Love Nest, with the classic image of her in a billowing white dress from The Seven Year Itch on the back.

Mr Payne said it was a massive coup to partner with the Monroe estate, putting Burleighs in the same company as international giants such as Chanel, Coca Cola, Calvin Klein and Mont Blanc.

The Hollywood star died in 1962 but is still remembered for her “blonde bombshell” looks and iconic place in American popular culture.

Six decades later she is still a global phenomenon with 14 million likes on the official Monroe Facebook page, and 250,000 followers on Twitter.

Matt Payne is Burleighs Gin managing director

Mr Payne said the gin would be pink in colour – Burleighs' other pink gin is actually clear – and have a slightly sweeter taste geared towards the younger, female demographic of her continuing fanbase.

“We’ve got the support network of Authentic Brands Group in the US, which owns the Monroe rights and to American icons such as Elvis, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jackson," he said.

“That basically gives us the chance to get into huge markets.

“With that backing, it is reasonable to think we could be distilling 250,000 bottles of gin by 2020 – and if we get it right we could be doing that figure in Asia or the States alone.

Burleighs Gin

“China could be a very big market for us, then there’s Japan, Korea, Thailand, Singapore... we already have connections with Thailand through our Leicester City gin.